Charlie Health Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process started with a recruiter chat, followed by a meeting with the hiring manager. Then there were two technical interviews and a final interview with a VP focusing on product aspects. The behavior interviews were pretty standard and interactive, giving me space to ask questions and learn about the team. The technical interviews, conducted on Coderpad, involved two parts: first, designing a data model based on raw data, and second, doing more data modeling while answering business-related questions. The recruiting team provided excellent support throughout. Ultimately, the offer was declined due to the company's policy of only offering 15 days of PTO, which is less than expected, especially given past experiences and the current year. This, along with other policies and a general feeling about the company culture, suggested that work-life balance is not a priority here.

My interview process was close to 3 weeks long. A recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn and I scheduled an initial call that later turned into a miniature interview. After that, I was tasked with a 200-question assessment to complete that would match me to a manager. I then had another meeting with my recruiter to prep for the interview with the manager as it was a mock roleplay style interview. I later met with the manager and was told I did phenomenal and he would be sending me up for approval. I was later contacted by my recruiter and provided my references. I completed my self-reference, my references completed their surveys, and then the company continued to bother my references for additional information about myself several different times despite admitting that my references had nothing but good things to say about me. While this was going on, I received a phone call from my recruiter where I was given a verbal offer (a start date, salary, shipping date for equipment, etc. were all verified). After that, I was told I had to continue to wait and later received an email asking to tell my references to call back the recruitment team again as they had even more questions about me. At that point, I decided to back out of the opportunity.

I was contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn. I didn't know the company at first, but after looking into it, I got really interested in them, the job, and what they're about. They didn't give me a job description, so I had to find it myself on their site. I did a normal 30-minute phone interview with the same recruiter, and I thought it went well. They said I'd hear back in a day or two after they talked to the hiring manager. But that didn't happen. Instead, I got a generic rejection email over the weekend, which was even before the time they said I'd hear back. No feedback, no personal touch, no name. What really bummed me out was the lack of follow-up and honesty. The candidate experience starts right at the beginning, and it's important to set expectations correctly and stick to them. It was surprising that the communication was so impersonal, especially since the company's mission is about mental health. Even if I didn't move forward, respectful and prompt communication means a lot. From what others have said, this seems to be a common issue. I wish the company well, but I hope they put more effort into making their candidate experience better.

The interview process felt condescending from the recruiting side and the Director of Eng seemed disinterested and unprepared. This is just one of many health-tech startups, so if you have a better offer, take it. It started with a recruiter call where they questioned a short resume gap after 7 years at my previous company and asked if I had a good relationship with them, implying they'd check references. Then, the Director of Eng interview, where they seemed uninterested, didn't provide feedback, and I received a boilerplate rejection. It's ironic for a behavioral health startup.